Serving you, my neighbors in Cary, is a great honor. I have approached this honor with humility and integrity, focusing on the job rather than touting the successes we have achieved in my first term as your Mayor. That is my personality: put my head down and get the job done that you hired me to do.

I’m a huge fan of Ronald Reagan and have visited the Reagan Presidential Museum multiple times. I have a bust of him in my office that contains a plaque with these words: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.”

That is my mantra. I just want to get things done. Because of that, you haven’t heard much about the great things happening in our village. My opponent has been attacking me and dragging down our wonderful village, and I have done nothing to combat that negativity. I realize now that was a mistake, and I apologize.

The truth is we are making excellent strides in Cary. I am so proud of the progress we have made. If you honor me with a second term as your mayor, I promise to do a better job championing the many positives that make Cary such a wonderful place. In addition, I will build on our economic development successes to do what I can to lower our out-of-control property taxes. I will also continue to be a responsible steward of your hard-earned tax dollars, because I know I am accountable to you for every dollar.

Cary is consistently ranked as one of the best places in Illinois and even the nation for raising a family, and I refuse to let us get dragged down by people who gin up opposition and outrage to try to gain political power. I urge you to not let negativity win. While I have invested everything I have into doing the job for you, including attending 100% of the meetings, my opponent hasn’t shown up for over 20% of our meetings since he was elected 2 years ago. While we have more work to do here in Cary, we won’t get there through negativity and a lack of dedication. We can, and will, achieve our full potential by working together positively.

Paid for by Committee to Elect Mark Kownick Mayor. A copy of our report filed with the State Board of Elections is (or will be) available on the Board's official website (www.elections.il.gov) or for purchase from the State Board of Elections, Springfield, Illinois.